I finally got around to looking at the 1,200+ images I took during the annular eclipse and found a smidge of hope. Despite the cloudy day and the snafu with the polarized filter, I found some creative ways to tweak some of the pictures.
I realized immediately that the pictures without clouds looked a lot like a neon shape dropped onto a black background, which wasn't very interesting at all. The ones with the clouds looked way more interesting and I had a lot of fun playing with them. Learning Lightroom was an adventure, but way cool! I learned about what the histogram was actually for (don't ask me to remember, I just know what I want it to look like when I'm done tweaking a picture), as well as playing with contrast, shadows, hues, etc. I was able to bring out some depth and character from the clouds to make some really artistic pictures.
Granted, it looks more like the moon than the sun, but I still think they came out well. Afterward, I got the bright idea to make some eclipse jewelry. I plan to put up a store page after the new year to sell some of my creations and photos.
So I may not have been as prepared for the annular eclipse as I should've been, and I may not have gotten the pictures I originally planned, but I still came away with some cool pictures and some nifty ideas for my next photo shoot.